This invention relates generally to laser resonators, and more particularly, the present invention relates to an improvement in the structure of the gas-introducing regions of gas laser resonators.
In conventional gas laser resonators, a gas or gaseous mixture is supplied from a gas source to one or more gas-introducing regions so that the gas mixture is led into a laser tube functioning as an optically resonant cavity. The structure of such an introducing region is known as a double tube introducer in which an electrode is mounted. When the gas mixture is led into the laser tube via such a double tube introducer, the gas uniformly flows into the laser tube, and therefore, the gas mixture is apt to be concentrated at the center of the circular cross-section of the laser tube. As a result, the flow rate or speed of flow of the gas mixture is not uniform throughout the entire area of the circular cross-section, and therefore, the discharging point is concentrated at a limited point around an electrode. Therefore, the temperature of the electrode is apt to be high, while sufficient laser output cannot be expected due to the small discharging area or volume within the laser tube. Moreover, since the discharging point moves irregularly, the output level varies accordingly, and sometimes discharging undesirably terminates. For this reason, it is difficult to increase the pressure of the gas mixture or to increase the electrical power applied to the laser tube. Namely, the above-mentioned conventional laser resonators have sufferd from the problem that they have to operate with a low power output value.